Crash
by assassinactual
Summary: Rachel gets some news while preparing for her wedding, and rushes to the hospital.


She's in her room getting ready for the wedding. Kurt and Mercedes are fussing over flowers or something. Rachel isn't paying any attention to them. She sitting in front of her mirror, staring past her reflection and imagining her life with Finn.

She's trying to, anyway. She's been trying all week. She'll start by picturing herself in New York. She tried imagining staying in Ohio once. She had felt sick all night and had to put her Happy Music playlist on repeat.

Sometimes Finn would be with her, sometimes he would stay in Lima while she went to college. But he always ended up fading away into the background. Rachel just couldn't make him fit into her perfect fantasy life anymore. She could see herself finishing college and becoming a successful actress. She could see Kurt there with her, and sometimes even Quinn, but not Finn.

Actually, Quinn appeared a lot.

Including that one time Rachel fell asleep while fantasizing about her future that led to an erotic and confusing dream. She's trying to forget that. It's not easy. The images are very stimulating.

She spends the next several minutes very actively forgetting her dream.

She's just regained her senses when Tina bursts into the room. She's looking at Rachel apprehensively.

"What? What's wrong? Did the band cancel? _Did they get the wrong sheet music!_" She shrieks the last part.

"No, no, there's nothing wrong with the band. That was, um, t-that was Puck on the phone." A vague sense of unease settles on her. The look on Tina's face tells her that whatever this is, it's serious. "He said his friend Dan drove by a red Mustang crashed into a light pole on Dudley Road. And that he saw them taking a blonde girl away in an ambulance."

Kurt's face is white and his mouth is hanging open in shock. Mercedes is praying. Rachel doesn't notice them.

The unease has settled into a sick feeling in her stomach. She can hear blood rushing in her ears. She doesn't notice Kurt and Tina approaching her and asking if she's okay.

Images of Quinn flood her mind. Quinn's head smashing against the steering wheel. Quinn opening her mouth to scream as a semi slams into the side of her car. Quinn flying through the windshield then skidding across the pavement like a ragdoll. Quinn desperately trying to escape as fire engulfs her car. Quinn's bloody and broken body trapped in the unrecognizable wreck of her car.

She feels like everything's falling apart and she has no idea why. It's like when she thought she had missed her opportunity to get into NYADA, but a thousand times worse. She's never felt so lost or helpless.

"Quinn. No," Rachel whimpers. Kurt tries to comfort her, but she pushes him away. She knows she's close to breaking, but she can't let herself go now. She shuts her eyes tightly and takes a deep breath.

All the emotion that's been building for the last month, all the fear and doubt and uncertainty, has all been brought back to the surface by what's just happened. Using all of her willpower and theatre training, she pushes it down and locks it away. She knows she's going to pay for this later. But at the moment, she isn't concerned about later.

She opens her eyes. Her friends flinch at the steely determination they see.

"One of you is either going to drive me to the hospital or give me car keys," she says in a cold, commanding voice.

"Rachel, we—" Mercedes tries to speak. Rachel cuts her off.

"Now."

"I-I-I'll drive you, Rachel." Tina looks terrified by Rachel's sudden mood swing.

Rachel storms out of her room without waiting for Tina. She's already in the car with her seatbelt on by the time Tina leaves the house.

The ride to hospital is silent.

Rachel spends the whole time thinking of Quinn. The images of various horrific car crash scenarios taper off after a few minutes and she transitions to replay every interaction the two of them have had in the last few months. There's a lot of her New York fantasies sprinkled in there, too.

Then it hits her. Without even intending to, she's been doing for Quinn what she had tried and failed to do with Finn all week. She's imagining their life together.

Quinn taking the train down from New Haven on weekends to visit her. Her and Kurt taking Quinn for brunch at their favourite diner. Spending hours looking through used book stores and vintage record shops with Quinn. Going to a show with her, then sitting with her in an all night coffee shop talking until the sun came up. Spending a lazy afternoon cuddled on the couch watching Disney movies.

When Rachel originally thought of all these little scenes, they seemed innocuous. But now, when taken all together, they point to potentially much more than friendly feelings for Quinn.

Rachel forces herself to try and picture her life without Quinn in it. She fails, and the sick feeling in her stomach returns stronger than ever.

She begins to ponder what exactly all this means, but they're at the hospital. Rachel is out of the car before it even stops moving.

She practically runs through the emergency room doors and up to the reception desk.

"Quinn. Quinn Fabray," Rachel gasps out. The nurse looks up from her paperwork.

"I'm sorry dear, what was that?" she says with a kind smile.

"My friend, Quinn Fabray was in an accident. She would've come in recently."

"I don't remember that name." The nurse reaches for a stack of papers and begins flipping through them.

"She might be under Lucy Fabray," Rachel supplies.

The nurse reaches the bottom of the stack and sets them down, shaking her head.

"Sorry, no Quinn or Lucy Fabrays here."

Dozens of possible scenarios race through her mind, but one sticks out. It grabs onto her and sinks in. She knows it's what happened. If Quinn was hurt, she must have come though the ER. Unless she hadn't made it to the hospital.

"Oh god." She thinks she must be crying, but she can't tell anymore. She grabs onto the reception desk to hold herself up. The desperate, hopeless feeling is back. She feels like something has been ripped out of her. "Quinn."

"Rachel?"

No. She just imagined that. She's not going to look.

"What are you doing here? I thought... the wedding?"

That's definitely Quinn's voice. Right behind her. Rachel turns around.

There she is. Quinn. Her mother is beside her, but Rachel doesn't see her. She only sees Quinn. She has a huge bruise on the side of her face and a couple of bandages on her forehead, but is otherwise intact.

"Quinn?" Rachel reaches out, but she's almost afraid to touch Quinn. Quinn grabs her hand. In a flash, Rachel has her arms wrapped tightly around Quinn. She is shocked, but after a moment returns the hug.

"What happened?" Quinn asks, her voice full of concern. "Rach, what's wrong?"

Rachel can't contain her emotions anymore. The tears running down her cheeks give way to full on sobbing. Quinn rubs her back and leans closer to whisper in her ear. "It's okay. It'll be okay. I've got you."

Quinn's mother informs her that she's going to start the car and bring it around. Quinn nods to her and continues comforting Rachel. When her sobs die down, Quinn pulls back so she can see her face. "What happened?"

"You!" Rachel shouts. She pokes Quinn in the chest. "Puck said you crashed your car, then I came here as fast as I could and the nurse didn't have your name so I thought you died!" A few more tears are rolling down her cheeks.

"Rachel, I'm fine." Quinn smiles. "They just wanted to check me over and slap on a Band-Aid. I guess the guy forgot to sign me in." Rachel looks sceptical. "I'm fine. Really." She steps back stretches out her arms. "See? All here."

Rachel punches her playfully.

"I thought you died," she says with a pout.

"But I didn't." She reaches up to wipe the tears off of Rachel's cheek. "What about the wedding? Don't you need to be there in, like twenty minutes."

"I think, I uh, might be putting that off. Indefinitely."

"Oh?" Quinn almost looks hopeful.

"Thinking I almost lost you made me realize a few things." Quinn arches an eyebrow in question. "I care about you a lot Quinn. Maybe more than I should."

Quinn blinks in shock and tries to form words.

"Finn?"

"I don't know. I'm not marrying him. Not now anyways. There's a lot of things I need to figure out."

Quinn lets her arms fall away from Rachel, and takes a step back. She grabs one of Rachel's hand in both of hers.

"Do you think you could use a friend to help you with that?"

"A friend like you?"

Quinn nods.

"Yes, I think I could."


End file.
